“I’m definitely deserving to be on the list as one of the best producers right now, but I wouldn’t say hip-hop. Probably the only hip-hop thing I made was ‘A Milli’ and that was probably the greatest beat of this era,” the Atlanta-based producer told VIBE. “I think if you really define hip-hop, Premier is really the best hip-hop producer. He’s amazing with samples… he’s the essence of hip-hop.”

Bangladesh joins other rappers such as: Havoc, Jam Master Jay, RZA and Q-Tip in the Boom-Bap category, but felt he belonged more in Mass Appeal, or even his own division. “I have a sound that the masses like. But I wouldn’t put myself in any of those categories. I’m probably in ‘The Most Creative’ box or ‘Most Against The Grain,'” he says.

“All the producers in ['Mass Appeal'], they strive for certain things,” he continued. “Like Polow will go in and say we need to make a pop record, we gotta make a Top 40 and that’s what he’ll make. See, I create organically and it becomes mass appealed. That’s why I feel like I’m better. I don’t do what is going to make me money or what the DJs are going to want to play. I just do me. And everything that I’ve done has been knocked down in the beginning, but at the end of the day it sticks to the walls. It don’t take a label to back it up, it just blows because people want different shit.”

Bangladesh, who is also responsible for Beyonce‘s “Diva” and “Radio Phone” as well as Mario‘s 2009 summer smash, “Break Up” continued his self-adamance. “Honestly, I’m better than all them peoples. I’m not disrespecting them because I was influenced by Timbaland and Neptunes and all of them, but your time came and went. There’s time for other things to happen.”

“A lot of them producers, some have a sound and some don’t. I think Polow kinda does whatever, he doesn’t have a certain sound, he emulates other peoples stuff. To me, he’s probably a well-sought-out producer, but at the same time its about who you’re with, who you’re around, who’s getting you the work,” he continues. “I don’t get all the Interscope work, I create the work. That makes me better because I don’t have people in my pocket. My sound is so powerful that the artist love it and it skips all the middle men. All my beats have been placed by getting it directly to the artist. I don’t really need nobody cosigning.” —Tracy Garraud